Clare Hawkins

The importance of wetlands

... wetlands are being drained even today, as we've discovered for ourselves while ground-truthing potential habitat for the endangered Australasian bittern.

Find out exactly why the disappearance of our wetlands matters here – www.ramsar.org/about/our-mi... [2/2]

#WorldWetlandsDay #Tasmania

Evening light on a lagoon in northeastern lutruwita/Tasmania – with reeds in the foreground, clear water in the mid-ground and misty pasture and trees further in the distance.

Today is World Wetlands Day, around the world. It marks the signing of the intergovernmental Ramsar Convention on Wetlands by most countries, including Australia, in 1971. Unfortunately... [1/2]

📷 Blackmans Lagoon, Waterhouse
We recorded Australasian bittern boom calls (=breeding) here this season

A histogram listing the 12 countries with the most threatened species world wide in 2025, according to the IUCN. Madagascar has 4074; Indonesia 2839; Ecuador 2815; Brazil 2790; Mexico 2632; Malaysia 2379; USA 2165; Philippines 1957; Australia 1952; Colombia 1946; China 1763; 1752.

Example of IUCN Red List query, showing a slightly higher number of threatened species in Madagascar than in the graph - perhaps because I included 'Extinct' categories.

So hard to read; both for Madagascar, a country I came to know well in the 1990s, & for Australia just as politicians battle furiously over any potential improvement to nature protection laws.
Species & numbers details via the IUCN Red List: www.iucnredlist.org/search
#EPBC #ExtinctionMatters

#ExtinctionMatters

A cut out image of a Curlew on a green background alongside the wording: Discover the power of Acoustic monitoring.

Birdsong is not only beautiful, it’s also full of information. This is where Acoustic Monitoring comes in. Will you support the development of this new and important work? Find out more and donate today ➡️ www.bto.org/acoustic... #bioacoustics #ornithology

👋

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Really beautiful

I’m sad to see the bittern gone…

Australian bird of the year! A tiny feathery hiatus from the grim day-to-day | First Dog on the Moon (unless you are a bird)

NUMBER 3 WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (Tasmanian *obviously* 😆)

What are animals saying? AI may help decode their languages A groundbreaking research project is finally building the tools to translate just how whales and other creatures communicate.

IKR - imagine!! You're thinking of CETI's work?
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

Dive into the sounds of Tasmania's wetlands from dusk till dawn...🧵⬆️
#acoustics #citizenscience #Tasmania #conservation #science #conservationscience #wildlife #monitoring #nationalscienceweek #STEM #ornithology #bittern #threatenedspecies #biodiversity #nature #CallTrackers #NatureTrackers 🌏🧪🦇🪶🦉🌿🎙️

Bittern quest: boom or bust? [afternoon] Learn about the mysterious, Endangered Australasian bittern, & help track down its booming call among data collected across Tasmania by CallTrackers volunteers!

...hone the recognition software, so we can all better monitor for bitterns across Tasmania.
It's fun, there'll be great snacks, & you don't need to be an expert. Have a go for National Science Week!
Details & bookings: events.humanitix.com/bittern-ques...
#nationalscienceweek

A small raft is being punted by someone dressed as a squire; on the raft is a life size model of a horse, entirely covered in red and white squared cloth, and ridden by an armoured knight. They on a calm river and floating past some promising looking bittern habitat (reeds) Photo: Jim Whitehead

In Hobart this Sunday? Your ears are very much needed for this special BITTERN QUEST!
Help check CallTrackers' haunting recordings from around Tasmania—tentatively identified as likely the 'boom' of an Endangered Australasian bittern—in order to...
#nationalscienceweek #citizenscience #bioacoustics

The Field Guide to the Insects of Tasmania now offers yet another fantastic tool…
#Tasmania #insects #nature #TakeACloserLook

Fantastic 👏👏👏👏

#NatureTrackers' big #news! 🧵
with @btobirds.bsky.social
#bioacoustics #acoustics #citizenscience #CallTrackers #Tasmania #conservation #science #conservationscience #wildlife #monitoring #nationalscienceweek #STEM #ornithology #birds #curlew #threatenedspecies #biodiversity #nature 🌏🧪🦇🪶🦉🌿🎙️

Spring into wildlife monitoring action! | Latest news | NatureTrackers National Science Week workshops across Tasmania, September schools visits and more…

Please be part of it! Sign up! And for #NationalScienceWeek there are friendly intros to CallTrackers across Tasmania...
naturetrackers.au/news/spring-...

#CitizenScience #monitoring #conservation #Tasmania #NatureTrackers
🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️

📷 Helen Cunningham

Flying far eastern curlew against a plain pale grey sky.

—by Cradle Coast Authority’s NRM + Devonport City Council, under the Aus Govt-funded Urban Rivers & Catchments Program.
As the habitat improves, will #CallTrackers start to record the haunting curlew call & the bittern's boom?
Now we can find out.
#acoustic #conservation 🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️
📷 Elaine McDonald

Far eastern curlews have declined rapidly, facing disturbance, pollution & habitat loss in China, Russia, SE Asia, Aus & NZ— & on their migration routes between these. It's our largest shorebird; & check that incredible bill!
Hence restoration efforts at the Mersey estuary—
#WildOz
📷 Jenny Ostenfeld

Far eastern curlew on low wetland vegetation in Tasmania, showing off its immensely long, slightly downward curved bill.

This season, we can announce a new call recogniser in the software: for Critically Endangered FAR EASTERN CURLEWS, seen but rarely heard in #Tasmania.
It recognised calls from our 1st recordings near curlews, at dusk & dawn.
Where else will #CallTrackers detect them?
#news 🧪🌏🪶🌿🎙️
📷 Elaine McDonald

These annual #volunteer -run surveys across Tasmania, using recorders borrowed from libraries, can help track changes in these species' distributions & numbers.
We can even head back in time, to pick out calls of species that the Acoustic Pipeline can now recognise, from stored recordings...
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Small, green wildlife acoustic recorder set up at Moulting Lagoon, Tasmania, to record ultrasonic and audible sounds made by wildlife: recorder on stake in foreground; dunes, sand and sea in background

Australasian bittern, facing camera, well-hidden in green reeds with upward-pointing dull yellow bill, yellow eyes looking forward, beige and white feathered breast. Photo: Helen Cunningham

If you contribute to CallTrackers' annual surveys for #Tasmania 's 'noisy but elusive' species (like bats & the Endangered Australasian bittern)—you get to use @btobirds.bsky.social's Acoustic Pipeline software. Increasingly accurately, this can flag likely calls of these species...
#citsci 🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️

...and keep your eyes peeled for VERY exciting news coming soon, about the species we can learn about through CallTrackers acoustic monitoring...

#Tasmania #CallTrackers #NatureTrackers #bats #bitterns #citizenscience #stem #nationalscienceweek #acoustic #conservation 🌏 🧪🪶🦇🌿🎙️

Learn all about it for #NationalScienceWeek! Every Sept-March, you can help monitor wildlife across #Tasmania & learn more about your more elusive neighbours, by borrowing #CallTrackers’ state-of-the-art recorders from various libraries.
Find out more in a workshop: naturetrackers.au/news/spring-...

Chiropterology for Beginners: How to decode the secret world of bats - National Science Week Step into the fascinating world of bats with this special Australian National Science Week session! Discover the basics of chiropterology (the study of bats) as you learn how to survey bats and decode...

...check out this very cool online workshop which will enable you to explore your recordings further 😲 🦇
Find out more with Tas bat expert Dr Lisa Cawthen:
www.scienceweek.net.au/event/chirop...

#acoustics #bats #Tasmania #wildlife #monitoring #nature #calltrackers #nationalscienceweek

Tasmanians! Getting into the massive #NationalScienceWeek buzz? Maybe you've already booked into a 'Discover CallTrackers' acoustic monitoring workshop, or 'Bittern Quest'? Details in #NatureTrackers' calendar—see August: naturetrackers.au/about/events...
But ALSO...

#CitSci #STEM #Tasmania 🧪🌏🌿🎙️🪶🦇

Meet the contestants for Australia's top underrated animal Move over, roos and emus — this National Science Week, we're looking for the most underrated Australian animal. Meet the contestants, and vote for who you think should win.

It's a difficult concept & a *nightmare* choice (& I want more invertebrates) but still - let's give more fab species a big boost! Vote! Vote! Vote!

ikr

Picture of a Tasmanian velvet worms Ooperipatellus decorata, recorded from Balfour by Simon Grove on iNaturalist. It is very regularly patterned in diamonds & stripes of grey-blue, olive green and cream.

…but maybe just leave it to the velvet worms? 😆